Moving on from KISSmetrics…

When you start a company, it becomes your baby, and one of the hardest things to do is let go of it.

In 2008, I started a company called KISSmetrics with my co-founder Hiten Shah. The company has grown nicely, and we raised millions of dollars to help expand the growth of the business.

But what Hiten and I never really announced was that in 2022, we left KISSmetrics. Here’s why we left, and here’s what’s next…

Leaving KISSmetrics

We started KISSmetrics with a small team consisting of Hiten, me, an engineer, and a designer. As the company progressed, we added more people, raised more cash, and, of course, generated more revenue.

The journey with KISSmetrics has been fun. Although there were a lot of ups and downs, including hiccups such as a class action lawsuit and an FTC investigation, we learned a lot and are grateful for opportunities our investors, team members, and customers gave us.

As the company progressed, we have had a few different CEOs at the helm to help us grow the business further. And as they started to take on a lot of the responsibilities that Hiten and I once had to deal with, it opened up some free time, which allowed us to focus on some of our older businesses: Crazy Egg and Hello Bar.

What most people don’t realize is that although those companies may not be as well-known as KISSmetrics, they are larger in size from a revenue and profitability standpoint…especially when you consider that Crazy Egg has only five team members and was started 10 years ago. So in early 2022, Hiten and I started transitioning out of KISSmetrics so that we could focus on our other businesses and new things.

What’s next?

As you can see, I’ve been blogging a lot more. Since mid-2022, I’ve had a lot more time—my role at KISSmetrics was “Chief Evangelist,” and at the end of 2022, I fully transitioned out of it. This has allowed me to blog more on Quick Sprout as well as to start a new personal blog.

As time goes on, I will continue to blog as often as I am doing now. I don’t see how I can ramp it up, but I will be maintaining this level and trying to continually improve upon the quality.

Hiten and I—along with John Butler, who is the other partner and CTO of those two businesses—will also continue to grow Crazy Egg and Hello Bar. You should see a lot of new product releases with both of those companies this year and in future years.

As for Quick Sprout, there are a few things that are going to take place:

Hiten and I have been working on creating new marketing software to help you grow your traffic. We have a very early version that we are using ourselves, and within three to six months from now, a minimal viable version will be released to all of you for free. (You can signup for early access by going to the Quick Sprout homepage.)
I will be partnering up with a few companies during my spare time. So if you have a business that is generating seven figures in income and you want to work together, you can read this letter to learn more.
I will also be taking on a few consulting projects. I don’t really care for the revenue, but I’d like to work on fun projects. Almost all of the knowledge I’ve gained has been through consulting, which is why I still do it every once in a while. It doesn’t make the best money, but knowledge is priceless, and you gain it faster by working in multiple industries at the same time. If you are interested in us working together, go here.

Conclusion

KISSmetrics is still cranking away and growing. So if you are a KISSmetrics customer, you don’t have anything to worry about. If you aren’t one, you should check it out.

As for my time and Hiten’s time, we will be spending more of it on Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and creating new marketing software that you can use as part of Quick Sprout.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment, and I’ll do my best to respond.

P.S. If you want to learn more about my business partner Hiten, you can subscribe to his newsletter. He breaks down everything we’ve learned about building companies here.